﻿IXX PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



I have thus laid before you the origin of this settled point in Sacred 

 History as taught at this day in our schools*, and, from its juxta- 

 position to the text of the Bible, held in veneration by millions, there 

 is every reason to believe, as an undoubted truth. The study of 

 geology has become so general that those who are instructed in its 

 mere elements cannot fail to see the discrepancy between this date 

 and the truths which geology reveals. The youth is told in the 

 morning at school, probably by his own minister of religion, as I 

 myself have witnessed, that not more than about 6000 years have 

 elapsed since the creation of the world. In the evening he may 

 attend a lecture on geology, very possibly by one of the ninety-three 

 clergymen who are Fellows of this Society, and hear that, in a work 

 just issued from the press (a Lecture by a Professor in the University 

 of Oxford, delivered before the Yice-Chancellor of the University of 

 Cambridge), it is stated that " the probable length of time required 

 for the production of the strata of coal, sandstone, shale, and iron- 

 stone in South Wales is half a million of years f." It is thus easy 

 to see what a confusion must be created in the youth's mind, and 

 that he will involuntarily ask himself, " Which of the two state- 

 ments am I to believe?" There can be very little doubt what his 

 decision would be ; for he found the lecturer resting his statement on 

 unmistakeable records preserved in the great book of Nature, the 

 genuine incorruptible register of God's works ; whereas his school 

 instructor had adduced no evidence from the sacred text for his 

 averment. To remove any inaccuracy in notes accompanying the 

 authorized version of our Bible is surely an imperative duty. The 

 retention of the marginal note in question is by no means a matter 

 of indifference : it is untrue, and therefore it is mischievous. If in 

 future editions this erroneous date be removed, the omission of any 

 other will best express that entire ignorance of " The Beginning" 

 which no human power will ever be able to dispel. 



I cannot conclude this subject better than by quoting the eloquent 

 words of one of the most able and accomplished of our Associates, 

 the Bev. Adam Sedgwick, who, in the Appendix to his Discourse 

 on the Studies of the University of Cambridge, thus expresses 

 himself j : — 



" Between the first creation of the earth and that day in which 

 it pleased God to place man upon it, who shall dare to define the 

 interval? On this question Scripture is silent; but that silence de- 

 stroys not the meaning of those physical monuments of his power 

 that God has put before our eyes, giving us, at the same time, 

 faculties whereby we may interpret them and comprehend their 

 meaning. In the present condition of our knowledge, a statement 



* The event is so recorded in three school histories of the Old Testament now 

 selling at the Book Depository of the National Society for Education of the 

 Established Church. In a school-book with the title of ' Scripture Lessons,' 

 published by direction of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, 

 " The Creation, b.c. 4004," stands at the head of the First Lesson ; and in the 

 preface it is stated, " These Lessons, as the name imports, are drawn from the 

 Sacred Volume." 



t Professor Phillips. ' Life ou the Earth.' p. 134. 



+ Fifth edition, 1850, p. 110. 



